SINGAPORE: Pushing back the close of the financial
year for two months was one of the tactics City Harvest Church’s former
investment manager Chew Eng Han suggested to avoid having to disclose
sham bond investments made using church funds, the prosecution alleged
on Tuesday (Mar 17).
The two-month delay would buy time for an Xtron Productions property at Suntec to be ready so that advance rent paid to it from the church’s coffers can then be used to partially redeem bond investments, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Christopher Ong said.
Xtron used to manage pop singer Sun Ho — she and her husband Kong Hee co-founded CHC — whom the church wanted to venture into the US market to evangelise.
DPP Ong argued that Chew’s plan to redeem the bonds in this manner was “just a continuation of what (was) already seen in the ... bonds”, which the prosecution charges are guises through which money was channeled into Ms Ho’s career.
“You were quite happy to make use of CHC’s funds to repay itself,” he argued.
Chew, however, countered that the act was a conversion of assets “from a bond to advance rental”, which was “not a big issue” in his view. He reiterated that it was unforeseen that Ms Ho’s US album would not be launched in 2009, the year the Xtron bonds would mature.
“If you enter into (a bond) knowing that you’re not going to make it by that date, then it calls into question whether it was a genuine investment at all,” countered DPP Ong.
To which Chew retorted: “In that case, I think there will be many bonds out there in the markets that will be ruled as sham bonds.”
It is the prosecution’s case that in addition to misusing S$24 million of church building funds into sham bonds to boost Ms Ho’s pop music career, Chew and his co-accused, including Kong, also “round-tripped” another S$26.6 million via a series of complex transactions to create the impression that the bogus bonds had been redeemed and throw auditors off the scent.
The two-month delay would buy time for an Xtron Productions property at Suntec to be ready so that advance rent paid to it from the church’s coffers can then be used to partially redeem bond investments, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Christopher Ong said.
Xtron used to manage pop singer Sun Ho — she and her husband Kong Hee co-founded CHC — whom the church wanted to venture into the US market to evangelise.
DPP Ong argued that Chew’s plan to redeem the bonds in this manner was “just a continuation of what (was) already seen in the ... bonds”, which the prosecution charges are guises through which money was channeled into Ms Ho’s career.
“You were quite happy to make use of CHC’s funds to repay itself,” he argued.
Chew, however, countered that the act was a conversion of assets “from a bond to advance rental”, which was “not a big issue” in his view. He reiterated that it was unforeseen that Ms Ho’s US album would not be launched in 2009, the year the Xtron bonds would mature.
“If you enter into (a bond) knowing that you’re not going to make it by that date, then it calls into question whether it was a genuine investment at all,” countered DPP Ong.
To which Chew retorted: “In that case, I think there will be many bonds out there in the markets that will be ruled as sham bonds.”
It is the prosecution’s case that in addition to misusing S$24 million of church building funds into sham bonds to boost Ms Ho’s pop music career, Chew and his co-accused, including Kong, also “round-tripped” another S$26.6 million via a series of complex transactions to create the impression that the bogus bonds had been redeemed and throw auditors off the scent.
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